Category: Governance

The Department for Education (DfE) has announced that KS1 and Phonics data for 2017 is now available in ASP (the replacement service to RAISEonline).

KS2 Children Looked After data, including disadvantaged breakdowns, has also be added to the service. Please note, users will need to have school named access (through their Secure Access account) in order to view the new pupil list reports.

Access to ASP is via Secure Access; help with logging in is available here (external link) 

Provisional KS4 data will be added to ASP at the end of November/first week in December.

The Department for Education (DfE) has released the latest data (external link) on pupil absence rates in England, covering the period between autumn 2016 to autumn 2017 (external link).

The key findings from the data release are:

• overall absence rates are relatively stable, increasing by 0.1% between 2015/16 and 2016/17
• the number of unauthorised absences has risen by 0.2%, partly “due to increased levels of unauthorised family holiday and other unauthorised absence”
• the number of persistently absent children has risen by 0.1%
• as in previous years, the most common reason for absence was illness (60.1% of all absences)

Governors should be aware of the absence rates in their schools, and question how attendance in each year group compares with national averages, looking specifically at trends over time. You can find out more about absence rates in schools by going to the DfE school performance tables (external link).

The Department for Education (DfE) has published an action plan for post-16 T-level (technical level) qualifications. These will be introduced alongside apprenticeships and A-levels to give students more options upon completing their GCSEs.

The report outlines that T-levels will be level three qualifications. The aim of the qualification will be to give young people the “knowledge, skills and behaviours necessary to start skilled employment in an occupation related to their field of study”. All T-level programmes will be “substantial” and “high quality” courses equivalent to three A-levels in size. Although T-levels will be set to the same standards as apprenticeships, they will be more “classroom based” than apprenticeships. Nevertheless, they will still all include a “substantial work placement with an employer … to help students put into practice the knowledge and skills they have learnt in the classroom”.

The first T-levels will be ready for delivery by 2020, across three ‘pathways’: digital, construction, and education and childcare. Other T-level pathways will follow in 2021 and 2022.

Those governing, particularly in secondary schools, need to ensure that the school provides impartial careers advice to students – which includes information on technical qualifications. New legislation, introduced through the Technical and Further Education Act 2017, will come into force in 2018. This will “require schools to give education and training providers the opportunity to talk directly to pupils in years 8 to 13 about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships that they may offer”.

Governance Services is pleased to advise that the Spring term governance training programme is now available to book online.  The programme includes firm favourites such as Safer recruitment, a vital for governors sitting on recruitment panels, Health and Safety, Understanding Progress and Attainment, together with new courses on offer around working with key stakeholders and SEND provision including autism.

All governors are encouraged to take a look and book courses at online (external link)

The government  has published its green paper outlining its proposals on internet safety to “make Britain the safest place in the world to be online”.  (external link)

The government’s strategy aims to foster a co-ordinated, strategic approach to online safety across the country but specifically relating to education, it proposes that the Department for Education (DfE) and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS):

• intends (subject to consultation) to make Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education compulsory in all schools from September 2019
• will ensure that new compulsory subjects address the challenges faced by young people who use the internet and that ‘online safety’ is a specific feature of content – again subject to consultation
• will expect ‘digital literacy’ and ‘digital citizenship’ to form part of compulsory relationships education relationships and sex education and/or compulsory PSHE
• will continue to ensure schools are well supported by signposting to relevant materials and providing clear guidance about their responsibilities in relation to cyberbullying
• will revise the statutory guidance, ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’, to reinforce schools’ safeguarding duties and responsibilities regarding online safety, which the DfE is expected to consult on this autumn.

The government has released details of the allocation (external link)  for the PE and sports premium, as well as updated  guidance for how schools can spend the funding (external link).

As part of the government’s Childhood Obesity plan, the government are doubling the PE and sport provision in schools, from £160 million to £320 million a year. This year, schools with up to 16 eligible pupils will receive £1,000 per pupil. Those with 17 or more eligible pupils will receive a lump sum of £16,000 and £10 per additional child.

Much like the pupil premium, those governing are responsible for ensuring that the PE and sports premium is spent appropriately in their school. For more on the PE and sport premium follow this link (which is available to NGA members only) (external link).

The Department for Education (DfE) released updated model privacy notices for “schools and local authorities to issue to staff, parents and pupils about the collection of data”. These documents can be used to let relevant stakeholders know how schools process data and how personal data about oneself can be accessed.

Access the model privacy notices here (external link)

These model privacy notices were updated to “help schools comply” with the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which will come into force on 25 May 2018. These new regulations will introduce stringent new mandatory procedures for data management in the United Kingdom. Schools need to ensure compliance with the GDPR or risk substantial financial penalties from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

For more information on the GDPR,  you can visit the Browne Jacobson website which includes a free video on how to implement GDPR in your school (external link)

Governors Services will shortly be offering a specific training session for Governors to help them to understand what the GDPR covers and changes that schools need to make- watch this space!

Ofsted has set out a new five year strategy (external link) based around the principle of being “a force for improvement through intelligent, responsible and focused inspection and regulation”.

The key points for schools are that Ofsted will work to:

• understand the consequences of inspection, its impact on workload, mitigate against perverse incentives and “not allow leaders to misrepresent Ofsted policy as a way to justify bad practice”;
• ensure that inspection feedback is constructive and create more opportunities for schools to provide feedback and challenge;
• survey and inspect more ‘outstanding’ schools in order to spread good practice (this may mean increasing the interval between inspection of good schools);
• develop new approaches and expertise to inspect new structures such as multi-academy trusts.